Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Optimal Foraging

Optimal Foraging

How animals obtain and eat their food is called foraging behavior. Foraging can include searching for plants and hunting for prey and depends on the species and environment.

Key Elements for Plant Nutrition

Key Elements for Plant Nutrition

Like all living organisms, plants require organic and inorganic nutrients to survive, reproduce, grow and maintain homeostasis. To identify nutrients that are essential for plant functioning, researchers have leveraged a technique called hydroponics. In hydroponic culture systems, plants are grown—without soil—in water-based solutions containing nutrients. At least 17 nutrients have been identified as essential elements required by plants. Plants acquire these elements from the...

Light Acquisition

Light Acquisition

In order to produce glucose, plants need to capture sufficient light energy. Many modern plants have evolved leaves specialized for light acquisition. Leaves can be only millimeters in width or tens of meters wide, depending on the environment. Due to competition for sunlight, evolution has driven the evolution of increasingly larger leaves and taller plants, to avoid shading by their neighbors with contaminant elaboration of root architecture and mechanisms to transport water and nutrients.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Neighborhood-level socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with gut microbial composition and diversity across many chronic disease states.

Frontiers in public health·2026

Same author

Incretins Predict Response to Enteral Nutrition Strategies in the EDEN Trial: A Secondary Analysis.

American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine·2026

Same author

How the Exposome Shapes Our Respiratory Health.

American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine·2026

Same author

Using Landsat Satellite Imagery to Investigate Spatial and Temporal Variation in Life History Traits in a Long-Term Study Population of Superb Fairy-Wrens <i>Malurus cyaneus</i>.

Ecology and evolution·2026

Same author

Habitat-specific trends in taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity in European plant communities over a century.

Nature communications·2026

Same author

Soluble Thrombomodulin Links Viremia and Mortality During COVID-19: Results From the ACTIV-4a Trial.

Journal of the American Heart Association·2026

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 23, 2026

Integrating Remote Sensing with Species Distribution Models; Mapping Tamarisk Invasions Using the Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling SAHM

Integrating Remote Sensing with Species Distribution Models; Mapping Tamarisk Invasions Using the Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling SAHM

Published on: October 11, 2016

Satellite-Derived NDVI Predicts Forage Availability in a Wild Ungulate System: Ground-Truthing Using Field-Collected

Shane Butt¹, Kirsty Macphie¹, Richard S Turner¹

¹School of Biological Sciences Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Edinburgh Edinburgh Scotland.

Ecology and Evolution

|April 22, 2026

Summary

Satellite vegetation greenness data, using Landsat Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), accurately reflects forage availability for red deer. This indicates a long-term increase in food resources on the Isle of Rum.

Keywords:

EVI Landsat MODIS biomass grazing long‐term population study phenology red deer Cervus elaphus satellite vegetation

More Related Videos

Author Spotlight: UAV Remote Sensing for Efficient Invasive Plant Biomass Estimation

Author Spotlight: UAV Remote Sensing for Efficient Invasive Plant Biomass Estimation

Published on: February 9, 2024

Remote Sensing Evaluation of Two-spotted Spider Mite Damage on Greenhouse Cotton

Remote Sensing Evaluation of Two-spotted Spider Mite Damage on Greenhouse Cotton

Published on: April 28, 2017

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Apr 23, 2026

Integrating Remote Sensing with Species Distribution Models; Mapping Tamarisk Invasions Using the Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling SAHM

Integrating Remote Sensing with Species Distribution Models; Mapping Tamarisk Invasions Using the Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling SAHM

Published on: October 11, 2016

Author Spotlight: UAV Remote Sensing for Efficient Invasive Plant Biomass Estimation

Author Spotlight: UAV Remote Sensing for Efficient Invasive Plant Biomass Estimation

Published on: February 9, 2024

Remote Sensing Evaluation of Two-spotted Spider Mite Damage on Greenhouse Cotton

Remote Sensing Evaluation of Two-spotted Spider Mite Damage on Greenhouse Cotton

Published on: April 28, 2017

Area of Science:

Ecology
Remote Sensing
Wildlife Biology

Background:

Satellite-derived vegetation indices are valuable for ecological studies but their reliability for herbivore forage is underexplored.
Long-term ecological research on wild red deer (Cervus elaphus) on the Isle of Rum provides a unique study system.
Understanding forage availability is crucial for managing wild herbivore populations.

Purpose of the Study:

To assess the reliability of satellite-derived vegetation indices, specifically Landsat Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), as a proxy for forage availability for wild red deer.
To analyze long-term trends in vegetation greenness and their relationship with forage availability on the Isle of Rum.
To develop a transferable framework for integrating remote sensing data into individual-based wildlife studies.

Main Methods:

Utilized three decades (1991-2023) of Landsat satellite imagery to generate a 30m resolution NDVI dataset for the Isle of Rum.
Ground-truthed Landsat NDVI data against live vegetation biomass collected from preferred deer habitats (calcareous grassland).
Compared Landsat NDVI with a coarser-resolution (500m) MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) metric.

Main Results:

Landsat NDVI showed a positive correlation with live vegetation biomass and MODIS EVI, confirming its ecological relevance.
All vegetation metrics indicated a long-term greening trend over the past three decades.
The high-resolution Landsat data revealed variations in greening rates across different vegetation types, including deer-preferred grasslands.

Conclusions:

Satellite-derived NDVI is a reliable proxy for forage availability in long-term ecological studies of wild herbivores.
The observed greening trend suggests an increase in forage availability for red deer on the Isle of Rum, potentially impacting population dynamics.
The study demonstrates a transferable remote sensing framework to enhance ecological inference in wildlife research.